New website explains climate change’s effects on R.I.

A group of scientists from the University of Rhode Island, in cooperation with several agencies, is launching a new website Monday to educate people about climate change and its...

By Tom Mooney

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — A group of scientists from the University of Rhode Island, in cooperation with several agencies, is launching a new website Monday to educate people about climate change and its effect on the Ocean State.

The Waves of Change website www.RIclimatechange.org is designed as a resource for people with varying degrees of scientific knowledge.

“Rhode Islanders need the best information available as they adapt to coastal erosion, higher risk from storm surge, shifting seasons and fisheries, and other effects related to climate change,” said U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who will help announce the website Monday at URI’s Coastal Institute in Narragansett.

“This website can be an important tool in educating our families and communities about what to expect and how to respond to the challenges of climate change,” Whitehouse said.

The website offers animation and video interviews as well as extensive science-backed information, to inform everyone from schoolchildren to business owners to the general public.

The site also includes a section to ask questions and make comments.

Judith Swift, director of the URI Coastal Institute and one of the leaders of the URI Climate Change Collaborative that created the website, called it “an online cup of coffee with a friend who needs to wake up to the perils and opportunities of climate change.”

The collaborative received help from various state, regional, national and international groups as well as Brown University’s Center for Environmental Studies and Rhode Island-based videographers, composers and cartoonists.

Pam Rubinoff, a coastal and climate change specialist from the URI Coastal Resources Center, who also helped lead the project, said, “Whether I am speaking with decision makers or teachers, they want to know what they can do about sea-level rise or intense weather patterns. Waves of Change provides valuable answers.”

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